Shadow of great britain

On the barge on the Thames River, Arthur leaned on the edge of the railing and smoked to himself. Looking up at both banks, he could only see cement sewage pipes relentlessly discharging tons of domestic sewage into the river.

The dark river water is like a puddle of thick ink that cannot be dissolved, with layers of viscous tar floating on the surface. Almost all of these chemical pollutants come from the London Gas Light and Coke Company headquartered in Westminster. .

Of course, besides tar, you can often see some novel things on the river.

Such as rags that are so dirty that they are almost unrecognizable, various rusty knives with suspicious origins, or various half-used empty bottles of cosmetics and alcohol.

Or, if you are unlucky, you may encounter a corpse that is so decomposed that it is almost impossible to identify its original identity.

All kinds of corrupt bacteria breed here, and no one in their right mind would like to stay here for a while longer.

But the Thames River still flows every day. In addition to the sailors who have to pass here to unload cargo at various docks in London, the dirty Thames River also supports many "river scavengers" who make a living by salvaging waste.

Even though the Thames is dirty and rancid, these poor people cannot live without it.

Their whole day's livelihood depends on finding some belongings from the corpses or picking up some scraps that can be resold and recycled.

Across the river bank, Arthur could see the shadow of the Tower of London standing in the distance through the foggy weather.

As a defensive fortress built during the reign of William I, the Tower of London has been used for other purposes many times over its long history, including castles, palaces, treasure houses, gunpowder magazines, and mints. Of course, its most famous function is Act as a prison.

The most famous criminal ever imprisoned in the Tower of London was the unmarried virgin Queen Elizabeth I.

She was convicted of treason because of the suspicion of her sister, Mary I.

But fortunately, since Mary I had no heirs, Elizabeth was eventually designated as her heir.

Elizabeth I became the only treasonous prisoner to emerge from the Tower of London alive.

The other people imprisoned here were not as lucky as her.

The big names who died here include at least 9 princes, queens, archbishops, at least 33 dukes, marquises and counts, in addition to dozens of barons, knights and other low-level nobles.

The Tower of London did not always only target nobles. When it came to executing people, it treated nobles and civilians equally.

It's just that the way civilians die is relatively common, and they usually have no choice but to go to the gallows.

In order to highlight the difference of nobles, when executing nobles, male nobles must be beheaded with a long-handled axe, while female nobles must be burned on the rack.

But the nobles obviously didn't like this special treatment very much.

Because during the execution process, there have been more than one occasion where the executioner's ax was too blunt, resulting in no fatal blow.

In order to cooperate with the executioner's beheading action, sometimes the nobles would even spend the night before the execution thinking about what posture they should use to make it easier for the executioner to exert force.

When it comes to how to kill people, it is rare for British nobles to envy France, their neighbor across the strait.

Compared to being hacked to death with an axe, the semi-mechanized guillotine is indeed a great invention.

The improved guillotine, designed and personally inspected by French King Louis XVI, is a stable and reliable genius idea.

For this kind of thing, any British aristocrat must shout - Brilliant!

All kidding aside, Tower Hamlets, where the Tower of London is located, has a reputation as bad as the Tower of London.

Even in the chaotic East End of London, Tower Hamlets can be called a heavyweight.

Just look at the areas it governs to get an idea of ​​what it's like: Whitechapel, Ratcliffe, Hackney, Bethnal Green and the West India Docks, crowded with cantankerous sailors from all over the world. .

Male workers were concentrated in shipyards, ship repair yards, foundries, barrel making factories, canvas factories, rope making and pulley factories, while women and child workers worked in large numbers in silk weaving industries such as garments, lace, and shoemaking.

But no matter how they are classified, these industries cannot escape one conclusion - they are all labor-intensive industries.

These factories, coupled with the docks that are busy all year round, naturally gave birth to a large number of cheap pubs and a prosperous prostitution industry.

In Scotland Yard's daily reports, these industries represent high population mobility and the resulting high crime rates.

Although Arthur often worries about the crime situation in Greenwich, every time he looks up at Tower Hamlets, which is just across the river, he swallows these complaints back.

The security situation here was so bad that Scotland Yard had to issue a warning to journalists visiting the area.

Journalists who wish to visit chaotic parishes such as Whitechapel must apply to Scotland Yard in advance and must be accompanied by at least two police officers before entering the area.

In the east of the Tower of London, this area was originally used for hanging pirates and sea wanderers. Today, more than 300,000 London poor people have gathered, and it is still siphoning off poverty-stricken areas in the UK at an annual growth rate of more than 10%. .

The destination that Arthur and the others are visiting today is Cambridge Heath, an area under the jurisdiction of Tower Hamlets.

As soon as they stepped off the barge, they could feel the hot smell coming from the dock.

It was June, the season when wool from South Africa and South America arrived in London. The docks were full of sweaty men and groups of sailors who were shouting to go ashore to have fun.

According to the information provided by counterfeit businessman Judd Martin, the criminal organization they were looking for on this trip, Cambridge's Little Brothers, was mixed in this vast crowd.

And finding these people is actually easy.

Arthur winked at Tom and others, and the plainclothes policemen from Greenwich District who came with him immediately understood and dispersed into the bustling crowd.

Arthur saw that everyone was hiding, and then he opened his coat without haste, revealing the blue and white sailor uniform covered under the clothes, and then checked the daggers, flintlock pistols and other weapons hidden in the coat.

After making sure that everything was in order, Arthur took out a wide-brimmed sailor hat from his pocket and put it on his head.

He found a busy intersection, leaned against the red brick wall, took out the gin bottle in his pocket and took a few sips.

After two sips of wine, Arthur was tipsy and his cheeks were covered with a blush.

It was the factory's lunch break at this time, and many female workers from nearby textile factories hurried to the mobile stalls on both sides of the road and began to snap up freshly baked lunches.

It's said to be lunch, but it's actually some fast food, with fish and chips being the best-selling item.

One is because the price is cheap, and the other is because the production is simple and efficient.

After all, female workers usually only have fifteen to twenty minutes of rest time, and they must solve their lunch problem as soon as possible.

Otherwise, if you fail to get back to the factory in time to start work, you may lose your wages for the day.

As the saying goes, if you don’t do the work, people will do it. The East End of London lacks everything except labor.

The arrival of the female workers instantly sent the sailors, who had not seen women for months, into a frenzy. They whistled frivolously to the ladies, occasionally mixing in a few obscene words.

Experienced sailors have already begun to find girls they like and start talking business.

The female workers have long been accustomed to such scenes. After all, such situations happen almost every day at the dock, and it is impossible to escape.

Arthur also wanted to learn to whistle like the sailors, but his technique was too rough. Not only did he fail to arouse the interest of the ladies, but he also attracted ridicule from the sailors on the side.

With Arthur's shallow understanding of linguistics, the sailors' mocking words included at least Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and authentic American village English.

This is enough to illustrate the diversity of British sailor culture, and in the face of the sailors' ridicule, Arthur also fought back mercilessly.

He pointed his middle finger at the sailors and said in a straight voice: "Where is your mother laughing? You idiot!"

Agares, who had been waiting in front of the fried fish stall to get something secretly, heard this and couldn't help turning his head to look at Arthur.

The red devil exclaimed: "Damn it! Arthur, do you know Chinese?"